Swoll, who boasts 4.7 million followers on Instagram and almost eight million on TikTok, labels himself the ‘CEO of gym positivity’, posting numerous times about making the gym a safe space away from certain individuals who make it an uncomfortable place for others.
A lot of his posts focus on calling out what he labels unacceptable in the gym, such as people acting ‘totally inappropriately’.
Swoll, 41, previously called out one gym goer for wrongly accusing a man of being a pervert. As a result, her gym membership was revoked.
Standing up for the average gym goer everywhere (X/@TheJoeySwoll)
He’s also taken the time to rightfully criticise a woman for filming someone getting changed while naked in the changing room. Just not on.
In one of his latest videos, Swoll focuses on a TikTok user who goes by ‘Victoria Haveasecret’, with the woman replying to his take down of her.
In her video, entitled ‘Gym Karen!’, a lady from an exercise class taking place behind Victoria came over to her to ask her not to film in that direction. The reason was pretty fair; members of the class wanted privacy.
“I know you’re allowed to film in the gym, so if you can just angle the camera, that’d be great,” the woman told Victoria, who hails from Pennsylvania, USA.
Victoria then puts a caption over the video saying ‘Karen told the instructor I was still recording’.
Joey Swoll criticised Victoria’s response (X/JoeySwoll)
Swoll captioned his response saying: “The only ‘gym Karen’ in this video is YOU!”
In the video, he is a lot more eloquent, saying: “So you call this woman a gym Karen for what? Because her and the other ladies in that class don’t want to be in the background of your video? And she asked you very politely to simply change the angle of your camera?
“Which, according to the rules of [this specific gym] LA Fitness, she has every right to do. And as I always say I have nothing against filming in gyms that allow you to do so. But you have to do it responsibly with respect for other people.”
Joey Swoll Calls Woman A ‘Gym Karen’
“Don’t post a video calling them a ‘Gym Karen’, trying to make yourself out to be a victim, for likes and attention on social media. I hope LA Fitness sees this and kicks your ass out. You need to do better; mind your own business.”
Swoll shared a screenshot of the LA Fitness policy on filming in their gyms, saying recording people without their permission can result in the termination of your gym membership and even law enforcement being contacted.
Victoria responded to Swoll, labelling the entire event as a ‘misunderstanding’.
“I want to say it was a big misunderstanding,” Victoria responded with.
“He said that I was trying to call out the instructor and say that she was a ‘Karen’; that’s not the situation at all. The instructor was real nice.
“All she said was that she wanted me to redirect my camera and I just turned it off completely.
“I did try to circle the lady in the blue in the background of the video, she was being mean to me prior. And I was trying to call her a ‘Karen’.
